Rjd2 Biography
Ramble John Krohn, 27 May 1976, Eugene, Oregon, USA. Adopting a Star Wars-derived bastardisation of his own name, originally given to him in childhood and which he admits to hating, hip-hop artist RjD2 deftly bends, pitches and manipulates samples appropriated from grunge-rock, mid-60s psych-pop, rare groove, funk horn and even avant garde contemporary classical music into soulful, predominantly instrumental, hip-hop. Although Krohn is a proficient, battle-winning DJ, he describes his "playing out" as simply research for further studio-based experimentation.
Prior to his recordings for Definitive Jux, Krohn had previously produced music for MHz and Copywrite, and in 2001 released the inspired mix CD Your Face Or Your Kneecaps. Tellingly, however, a sample near the beginning of RjD2's 2002 debut Deadringer read "This is the first record I've made under my own name and the first record I've under my own control entirely without anyone else telling me what to do in certain places." On Deadringer and the follow-up Since We Last Spoke (2004), soulful vocal samples were frequently appropriated, in place of more usual vocals, a method of music making prompting comparison with Moby's bestselling Play. More pertinently, Krohn's modus operandi was aligned with that of DJ Shadow. Although his early releases appeared on hip-hop label Definitive Jux, the track "F.H.H." (from Deadringer) was reportedly acronymic for "fuck hip-hop" and lines like "So what the fuck is your definition of the underground?/Depressing beats and bleak cats who love the sound?" could almost have been misconstrued as being about other Definitive Jux artists. The move towards a more rock-influenced sound that began on Since We Last Spoke, was pursued to full effect on the artist's debut for the XL Recordings label. Released at the start of 2007, The Third Hand featured largely conventional rock instrumentation and RjD2's grating vocals on almost every track. The result was messy and entirely unconvincing. RjD2 has notably remodelled tracks for Cannibal Ox and Aesop Rock as well as featuring on Chocolate Industries' Urban Renewal Program compilation alongside Mos Def, Prefuse 73 and Tortoise.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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